The quote database

he kept his mind at full stretch like a bow, and never gave in to old age by growing slack

if it has in store any of what I may call the food of study and philosophy, nothing can be pleasanter than an old age of leisure

You must make up your mind to steady and earnest work. You must be content to get on slowly if you only get on thoroughly.

We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry.

But we have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more are we capable of seeing.

He who experiments must, while doing so, divest himself of every preconception.

The fundamental principle of scientific pedagogy must be, indeed, the liberty of the pupil;--such liberty as shall permit a development of individual, spontaneous manifestations of the child's nature.

What a misfortune it is that we should thus be compelled to let our boys' schooling interfere with their education!

Look back on these forebodings, not hastily but reluctantly made, and see how in every instance they have completely failed.

All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess.

And yet, in spite of the opposition encountered, and the obstacles opposed to their acquisition of knowledge and their accumulation of property, the progress made by colored women along these lines has never been surpassed by that of any people in the history of the world.

With tireless energy and eager zeal, colored women have, since their emancipation, been continuously prosecuting the work of educating and elevating their race, as though upon themselves alone devolved the accomplishment of this great task.

I grew tired and did more harm than good; so, if I met with a difficult point, for example, in algebra, instead of poring over it till I was bewildered, I left it, took my work or some amusing book, and resumed it when my mind was fresh.

They may be truths to me, but don’t think that that makes them mine… because you can’t own a truth.

One thing you can depend on people being…is people.

There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy, than by considering the physical phenomena of a candle.

A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it.

But instinct is something which transcends knowledge.

Give us labour and the training which fits for labour! We demand this, not for ourselves alone, but for the race.

Free trade in labour and equality of training, intellectual or physical, is essential if the organic aptitudes of a sex or class are to be determined.

All sincere and earnest search after truth, even where it fails to reach it, yet, often comes so near to it, that other minds more happily situated may be led, by pointing out its very limitations and errors, to obtain a larger view.

General propositions do not decide concrete cases.

the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market

To stick to a thing till you are master, is a test of intellectual discipline and power.

It is better therefore to listen patiently to a friend's rebuke, for if he should afterwards do wrong himself and so need rebuke, he has set you the example of freedom of speech.